Handle With Care: Gautam Gambhir Asked To Treat Kuldeep Yadav Like Rohit-Dravid Did

News cricket Handle With Care: Gautam Gambhir Asked To Treat Kuldeep Yadav Like Rohit-Dravid Did

Handle With Care: Gautam Gambhir Asked To Treat Kuldeep Yadav Like Rohit-Dravid Did

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Last Updated: August 12, 2026, 17:23 IST

Murali Kartik urges the Gautam Gambhir-led India team management to support Kuldeep Yadav, giving him confidence & certainty, just like Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid did.

Kuldeep Yadav (PTI Photo)

Former India spinner Murali Kartik wants the current men’s team management to handle Kuldeep Yadav well by giving him confidence and certainty in the upcoming two-Test series against Sri Lanka. Kartik said the previous leadership, with Rahul Dravid as the head coach and Rohit Sharma as the captain, got the best out of Kuldeep across formats because they treated him like a match-winner.

In Dravid’s coaching tenure from November 2021 to June 2024, Kuldeep played 60 matches across formats, averaging almost two matches/month. Under Gambhir, he has featured in 38 matches, about 1.5 matches/month. Recently, Kuldeep seems to be running out of favor across formats, which was most evident in the three-ODI series against England, where the team preffered playing four seamers over him.

The Sri Lanka series in spin-friendly conditions, thus, seems like an inflexion point in his career. In his recent videos on YouTube, Ravichandran Ashwin has remarked how he’s unhappy with Kuldeep’s treatment under the current management. In one video, he even said that him and Ravindra Jadeja, in the twilight of their careers, considered Kuldeep the leader of the spin attack — a trajectory that seems to be derailed now.

On Wednesday, in an interaction organised by Sony Sports, Kartik spoke about being interested in seeing the kind of responsibility Kuldeep gets in this series. News18 CricketNext, then, asked him if he considered Kuldeep capable of being the leader of the attack, despite questions over his batting ability — which is quite important for Gambhir — and the fact that his role as an attacking spinner is different to Ashwin and Jadeja.

“He’s not a rabbit with the bat," Kartik said in reply. “He can definitely hold the bat—we’ve seen him bat as nightwatchman and occupy the crease for long periods. Maybe he doesn’t have the hitting ability of Jadeja and Ashwin, but I wouldn’t look at him from that angle. Look at him solely as a spin bowler, and he’s a wonderful bowler, a match‑winner who’s picked wickets in different countries."

“The key is he needs to be handled well. He’s had his share of injuries, even recently he struggled with his groin. But every time we talk about him playing, he’s not featured. You want consistency for Kuldeep. As a spinner, you want to know you’re a certainty—then you work very differently. The way Rohit and Rahul handled him was different, and maybe that’s why Ashwin and Jadeja, who were part of that regime, feel that," he added.

Kartik said that giving Kuldeep the keys to the spin attack would make him feel wanted.

“It’s high praise coming from Ashwin, saying even with us around we treated him like a lead bowler. It’s about making any player feel wanted. Humans are involved, emotions are involved. If you handle Kuldeep Yadav really well, you’ll get the best out of him," he added.

Focus on batting depth hurting players?

A key factor of the Gambhir era has been a focus on batting depth over bowling bite. Kartik acknowledged that this was perhaps not the right strategy for Test cricket, where taking 20 wickets is paramount.

“You don’t load your batting just to protect it and weaken the bowling, or the other way round—though it’s always the batting that wants bolstering. Guys like Manav Suthar and Kuldeep Yadav can bat if they find a place. You want enough arsenal to blow the opposition out twice," he said.

That ties up with where Kuldeep is.

“From personal experience, if you don’t have a consistent run, in‑out, there’s no continuity, no feel‑good factor. You don’t know why you’re out, why you’re in. It creates a lot of doubts in your own mind. You know you’re good—that’s why you’re in the 15—but if you’re in and out of the playing XI, it creates doubts. That’s why I said he needs to be handled well," Kartik added.

Watch Sri Lanka vs. India 1st Test Day 1 on August 15, 2026, from 10 AM IST live on Sony Sports Ten 1 SD & HD & Sony LIV.

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First Published: August 12, 2026, 17:20 IST

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